Reflections on the Origin of the Foundation

by Wilton Dillon, first Creativity Foundation Junto member

Benjamin Franklin Kahn sought me out to discuss my earlier Smithsonian work as director of symposia and seminars and interdisciplinary studies. Soon, I learned of his long-held idea to form a sequel to Franklin’s junto. He flattered me by inviting me to join his circle of friends from geriatric psychiatry, musicology, and physics.  I told him of my meeting in 1956 with J. Robert Oppenheimer when he spoke to foreign Fulbright scholars at Sarah Lawrence College. Oppenheimer thrilled his audience by describing his own thought processes: an arc of light illuminates and connects several points of the brain. Such poetic versions of neuroscience became enduring images, for me, of creativity. This was by no means a definition of creativity, but it served well to reinforce the common ground I enjoyed with BFK.

BFK’s own creativity was linked to his playfulness. Remember his “toy,” the Model T convertible?  I hope that future Laureates can be discovered through seeking out playful people. (See Huiziga’s classic, Homo Ludens). I once organized a symposium of great interest to BFK, “Play and Inventiveness,” commemorating the Einstein centennial in 1979. We played with the idea that art, science, and technology are the products of the play impulse in mammals. 

Creating a new junto  proved to be an organizational form of creativity. The BFK circle became a social invention. I was happy to be included in the early days, though other duties prevented my continuing as a member of that enlightened gathering of restless minds—all capable of seeing patterns in music, atomic particles, and the human psyche. My Smithsonian colleague, Mara Mayor, made invaluable contributions to providing a partnership that endures today with the foundation’s annual honors and particularly BFK’s devotion to identifying talent in the new generation. 

Erik Erikson described Einstein as “a victorious child who never lost his sense of wonder.” The same applies to Benjamin Franklin Kahn and those who perpetuate his legacy.  How appropriate that Morris is now added to the pantheon.

WILTON DILLON, the original Junto member of the Creativity Foundation, was the Director of Symposia, Seminars, and Interdisciplinary Studies at the Smithsonian Institution. A cultural anthropologist who focused on cross-cultural communication, he had a major hand in shaping the Smithsonian Institution over his forty years there. He aspired to reinvent the Smithsonian as a great public center of learning with museums. The symposia he oversaw generated books on contributions of sciences and humanities to understanding trends in modern civilization. His earlier work at the National Academy of Sciences concerned science diplomacy. (Alli: in his article please take out the last sentence that says "How appropriate that Morris is now added to the pantheon." since it refers to a particular laureate)